I’m beginning to make some progress with the lobbying project. Last week I got it spitting out data; in mid-week, I optimised the process of loading the meetings from the ScraperWiki API into NetworkX. Hint: the obj_hook keyword argument in python’s json.load() function is really useful! This weekend it’s producing information about lobbies, ministers, and…
Read More lobby: updateI’m beginning to make some progress with the lobbying project. Last week I got it spitting out data; in mid-week, I optimised the process of loading the meetings from the ScraperWiki API into NetworkX. Hint: the obj_hook keyword argument in python’s json.load() function is really useful! This weekend it’s producing information about lobbies, ministers, and…
Read More lobby: updateSo I asked for your help to decide what I thought about the alternative vote. A few of you were supportive on the grounds that it was a start and it would be possible to demand further improvement later. NomadUK said..I say vote yes. It’s not great, but it greases the skids by changing the…
Read More AV: roundup and conclusion of a sortWell, if you’re the prime minister, you’re not allowed to fight back against your enemies in case you win because Gus O’Donnell says so, as long as the enemies aren’t the right kind of enemies like Coronation Street editors and UNISON hospital porters. All clear so far? When are the Tory apologies to O’Donnell going…
Read More of course, Gauck tells me my file is probably in MoscowSo, a free, jetlagged afternoon by the pool in Palo Alto, after this experience. What to do? Obviously, hack on some code. I dragged out the lobby analyzer project and got it to actually spit out ministers, lobbyists, and MPs, with their weighted degrees in the network, onto the command line. The conclusions are dreadful…
Read More I cannot begin to theorise what may have caused such a catastrophic malfunctionI’ve realised that I don’t know where I stand on electoral reform. (With that, even my readership vanishes into the distance like Libyan rebels encountering Gadhafi’s one loyal artillery observer.) So I’ve decided to abuse both sides in the hope that they react interestingly. For AV: What, you want to give Nick Clegg what he…
Read More Alternative vote: a reconnaissance by fireIf you need anything to read this week, don’t stick around here. Nick Davies for, as they say, the win. Follow the links – it gets better. There’s much more detail here. This is a truly amazing story of crypto-politics, journalism, police corruption, and general depravity. Do you prefer the police/Murdoch spy who went to…
Read More If these are the compromises, the power better be goodThings to get out of the data in this scraper of mine: for each lobby, the monthly meeting counts, degrees in the weighted multigraph, impact factor (i.e. graph degree/meetings to give an idea of productivity), most met ministers, most met departments, topics. For each ministry, meeting counts, most met lobbies, most discussed topics. For each…
Read More Self-binding note: lobby metricsIs it meaningful to say that the Egyptian revolution is calming down, or petering out? I ask because a common flaw of the reporting on it has been to treat the basic dynamics of mobilisation as if they were signs of huge political shifts behind the curtain. It’s obviously true that both revolutionaries and reactionaries…
Read More From the noisy phase to the quiet phaseOur former prime minister supported Hosni Mubarak this morning in the name of stability. Blair said that meant there should not be a rush to elections in Egypt. “I don’t think there’s a majority for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. On the other hand, what you’ve got to watch is that they are extremely well-organised…
Read More da brother’s gonna work it out